Issue link: http://accesshealth.uberflip.com/i/1022933
lifetime earning potential. "I feel bad when my mom tries to buy me some food and I say, ʻMom, if youʼre not getting yourself something, then Iʼm not getting anything,ʼ" says 10-year-old John from Michigan. "I wish I could get a little paperroute so I could bring home a check,because sometimes we have a little trouble paying the rent and getting enough food." Closer to home Missouri has the seventh highest rate of food insecurity. This equates to 16.7 percent of Missouri households that are food insecure, including low and very low food security. Of this number, 7.6 percent of Missourians have [very] low food security. Between 2000 and 2012, Missouri had the second highest increase in the rate of food insecurity, at 6.8 percent. Nevada had the highest rate. In "real numbers," approximately 393,135 householdsexperience food insecurity in the state. This equates to 967,113 people, or nearly 1 in 6 Missourians. Missouriʼs food banks are another case in point. According to the Missouri Food Bank Association (MFBA), the organizationʼs affiliated food banks distributed over 100 million pounds of food in 2013—the most in the stateʼs history. Total pounds reached 117,007,189, an increase of nearly 23 percent over 2012. According to Feeding America, that poundage equated to 97,505,980 meals for Missourians. Obese and food insecure Despite itsprevalence,food insecurity oftenremainsinvisible in the U.S. Some policy experts mistakenly correlate obesity with having more than enough to eat. However, research paints a different picture: Food insecurity and obesity can coexist in the same individual. (Food Research & Action Center: Hunger and Obesity? Making the Connections) Studiesrevealthatfoodinsecurity strongly correlateswithrates of obesity, suggesting that the two are closely connected. The Food Research&ActionCenterreportsthata lack ofeconomic and physical access to healthful foods can make people vulnerable to both food insecurity and obesity. Three dollars buys almost 4,000 calories of unhealthy food, like soda and chips, but only 300 calories of fresh fruit and vegetables. Hungry children Between 1999 and 2011, the number of children living in food insecure households increased by 37 percent, for a total of 16.6 million children. According to a report by Feeding America that focused on the impact of food insecurity, children who experience chronic hunger are also significantly more likely to experience behavioral problems and more likely to need mental health counseling. If thatʼs not enough, these children are at a higher risk of dropping out of high school and potentially reducing their Hungry in America Melissa is 62 years old, lives in New York and has a bachelorʼs degree. She used to be a substance abuse counselor, but when the program went bankrupt, the checks stopped coming. She originally found out about the neighborhood food pantry from her job. It was the same place she referred countless clients. "I never thought I would be the one coming here," she said. Melissaʼs story is a familiar one, as 1 in 10 Americans above the poverty line is "food insecure." In 2011, 50 million U.S. citizens lived in food insecure households, unable to afford adequate food for themselves or their families, reports the West Side Campaign Against Hunger. Of that number, 17 million people lived in households classified as having "very low food security." This means they often had to skip meals,reduce mealsize orgo without food fora day or more, according to a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report, Household Food Insecurity. Hearing about hunger in America is nothing new. However, the increasing number of hungry Americans has been mounting since the economic downturn. The USDA reports that between 2007 and 2011, the number of people who could not afford adequate food grew by nearly 14 million.